Easy No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating

That's a wrap

Wrapping pumpkins and gourds in yarn gives them a modern, stylish feel.

For pumpkins with just yarn, hot-glue ends of yarn and wrap pumpkins in shades desired. For pumpkin with Xs, use a yarn needle and accent yarn to make multiple cross-stich Xs and tuck in the tails. For burlap-wrapped pumpkin, cut a burlap band to fit around pumpkin, pull a few threads to fray the long edges, and use yarn and a yarn needle to make stitches along the length of burlap. Wrap finished piece around pumpkin and hot-glue in place.

Leafy look

Black-and-orange beauties

Give a tabletop or mantel some Halloween flair with these stylish pumpkins. For the glitter stripes, glue sequin strips on pumpkins. To get the striated effect, spray pumpkins with glossy black paint (protect stems with tape). When dry, scratch vertical or hotizontal lines in the paint with a paring knife or key.

Fanciful pumpkins

Fluttering butterflies alight on pumpkins in this attractive fall centerpiece. For this easy fall craft, we spray-painted faux butterflies from a crafts store all black for a sophisticated look and then trimmed their wires to press into the pumpkins’ skin. A harlequinlike mask adds whimsy.

Gold-leaf pumpkin

This white-and-gold arrangement dresses up a porch or mantel. Coat real or crafts-store leaves with gold spray paint, then glue them to small white pumpkins (look for varieties such as 'Lumina' or Cotton Candy at your local farmers market or pumpkin patch). Paint small orange gourds gold to match the color scheme.

Stenciled still lifes

Use leaf-shape stencils create to beautiful pumpkin displays. Wash and dry the pumpkins before painting. If overlapping stencil designs, make sure the first layer of paint is completely dry before you paint the next layer.

Painted leaf art

Start with one that is clean and dry. Lightly sand the surface and apply paint sealer to prevent flaking. Create a design with stencils and acrylic paint, such as the leaf stencil and orange and white paints used here, then finish with a top-coat sealer.

Painted mice

Creepy mantel

We can't resist a little skin-crawling fun! Plastic spiders wander over pumpkins draped in ripped cheesecloth. “Hairy” cording feels a bit like a spider’s trail on another. Add a faux crow, and you’ve set the proper spooky mood for Halloween.

Cool cat

A painted black cat chases three mice on pumpkins lined up atop an outdoor wall. Get shapes from clipartguide.com or another website. Print, cut out, and tape to pumpkin. Trace around shape, remove paper, then paint inside your lines.

Construction zone

We created faces with eyes, mouths, noses and eyebrows cut from black construction paper and glued to pumpkins. If you want to make a whole scene, use construction paper to make a fence, moon and crows behind your pumpkins; attach with removable double-side tape or temporary adhesive that won't damage your walls.